A Huntress in Fodlan
by Feeva
Summary: Weiss Schnee trains vigorously in the Blue Lions, hoping to one day to gain her father's approval. Ruby Rose builds everlasting bonds among those in the Golden Deers, along with her sister. Blake Belldonna is simply trying to get by in the Black Eagles, looking for no trouble. These girls spend their days in the Garreg Mach Monastery, unaware of the looming future that awaits them.


"You know, I'd bet some tea would warm up some of that cold expression of yours." A confident young man with orange hair walked into view, coming over to lean on the training dummy that Weiss had just skewered with her sword. "How about it then? Once we finish up in here, how about you let me take you out for lunch?"

"Practice that in a mirror this morning, didn't you Sylvain?" Weiss pulled her training sword out of the straw of the dummy as she rebuffed his offer. "Sorry, to waste your hard work, but I don't have for spending daylight with someone who has no actual concern for wasted time."

The Blue Lions were currently having their daily training session at the training grounds. Felix was practicing alone as usual, Weiss hardly interacted with him. Dimitri, Dedue, and Ingrid were off to the side, having an engaging conversation. And of course, the incredibly annoying Sylvain was attempting to score a date with probably the wealthiest girl in Fodlan as she was attempting to increase her skill in swordplay.

"What?! How is this wasted time? I do this because I'm concerned about my future!" Sylvain actually had the audacity to look genuinely shocked at the dismissal of his efforts.

"Also, you are correct, I did in fact, practice my pick-up lines after grooming myself this morning. I mean, just thinking about you, oh man, you're absolutely perfect, you've even got a crest! Just think about it, our kids will have better chances of having one or the other! Doesn't that at least pique your interest?"

"Don't be disgusting, especially in public." How did this riffraff even find the nerve to think about these kinds of things on a daily basis? Had he no shame? "I have absolutely no interest in such drivel like Crests and all that. You should probably think about your own training as well, considering that you have done practically nothing since coming here."

"That thing?" Glancing down at his discarded training lance with a chuckle. "Nah, I'm all good to go already. Besides, I'm pretty sure I can wipe everyone here twice over, if I had something to fight for." He finished with a wink.

"Is that so? Then you will have no problems with sparring with me yes?" Weiss could almost feel a vein pop on her forehead. Was it really that easy to dismiss everyone else's efforts in training despite the lack of Sylvain's own?

"Woah woah! Hold on a minute, I didn't mean anything like that!" Sylvain protested as she loomed over him. "I especially don't want to hurt you Weiss. I mean c'mon! We're cool right? Why don't we just talk about it over some drinks?"

"Pick up your lance Sylvain." Weiss's voice became icy cold as his pleas were repelled. "Prove that you aren't all hot air and I'll actually consider your offer. But if you lose, I'll have you take my cleaning duties and work like a dog for a month."

Sylvain froze, his jaw hung open at the sudden proposal. Almost scarily, a determined grin took its place.

"You're on." Sylvain bent over, retrieving his training lance off the ground.

By then, everyone had caught on to the mounting tension inside the building. Mercedes and Annette who had been sitting on the sidelines had perked up, curious to see what was going on. Dimitri, Dedue, and Ingrid stopped their conversation to make way for the combatants. Even Felix, ill-mannered as he was, had paused his training to watch.

Making way to the center of the grounds, Weiss and Sylvain got into their combat stances. By then, Dimitri had broken out the sparring bell.

"Just try not to inflict any blows that's going to send anyone to Professor Maneula. Please." Dimitri sighed, jaded because of the constant matches between the Blue Lions students.

He shook the bell.

Sylvain's smile disappeared in an instant.

Immediately, he lunged forward with his lance, thrusting forward with one arm. Weiss quickly dodged it by an inch, but she still felt the rush of air that the strike emitted.

Apparently, Sylvain was really determined about getting that date.

Before she could retaliate, he gripped the lance with both hands, going for a side sweep.

_Drat._

There was no escape from this blow, and she didn't have a shield to mitigate the damage. Bringing her arms in front of her, she took the brunt of the force with her forearms.

"Ugh!"

It had been a mistake to assume that Sylvain was going to go easy on her this time. Especially if there was a reward involved.

The pain was intense, the impact pushing her back at least a foot. From the sidelines, she could hear Mercedes gasp at the trade.

"That's going to bruise, Weiss!" Sylvains signature stupid smile was forming again on his face. "Maybe you should throw in the towel here. I definitely don't want anything to mar your beauty for our date."

"Don't even count on an easy victory Sylvain." Weiss spat back.

"Then so be it!" He declared, shooting forward with a lunge, hoping to catch his opponent off guard again.

Fortunately, Weiss was ready for it. In order to make that attack far enough, Sylvain had to break his stance. In that instant the heels of his feet were off the ground.

Barely dodging again this time, even as the lance grazed her arm, Weiss leapt forward past his attack and went for a low sweep with her sword heading towards the back of his legs.

The hit knocked the young bachelor fell right on his rump. Somewhere in the crowd, Annette made a noise of sympathy.

Sylvain's lance clattered against the ground, as the nobleman sat back, rubbing the small of his back as pain shot up his spine. In his preoccupation with his aching read, he wasn't able to notice the shadow looming over him.

With a flourish, Weiss stuck the wooden sword right under his chin, lifting his head so that it would angle towards her. "Do you yield?"

Sylvain sat on the floor in awe, "Woah…"

"What?"

"Nothing. I lost, fair and square." He grinned, shrugging his shoulders and accepting his fate. "I guess I'm skipping lunch today."

The audience broke into chatter and applause, Ingrid walked forward with a scowl and immediately launched into another of her angry tangents at Sylvain.

Weiss rolled up her sleeves to check her injuries. Unfortunately, Sylvain had been correct, red welts were already beginning to form on her light complexion. Sighing, she prepped to head to the infirmary, but stopped as she saw someone she would have never expected to see approach her.

"You." Felix stated.

"Uh… Excuse me?" Weiss asked the rude entrant, taken aback. "I have a name."

"Spar with me."

"Felix! What are you doing? You can't just challenge her to a match right after she's finished with another one!" Ingrid seethed, momentarily turning from Sylvain to catch Felix. "She's hurt! Are you blind?!"

"Even with those injuries, she can still hold a sword properly." He replied stoically. "And she's quite skilled, I want to test myself against her, while she's still got her blood up."

"What the? You can-not be serious right now."

"I can do it." Weiss interrupted.

Everyone watching turned their attention towards Weiss.

"He's right to some extent, the pain isn't too bad right now. And I can still hold my sword correctly."

With that, everyone looked towards Dimitri's direction for his input.

"I really don't think…" Catching the resolve in both Felix's and Weiss's expressions, the lord stopped and sighed. "I see. Well if the two of you are both fine with it, then I'll permit it as well." He reached for the bell again.

"As if we needed your approval, boar prince." Felix spat.

Everyone backed off to the sides again. With the addition of Sylvain sitting on the sidelines, who was still groaning about his pain, Ingrid firmly placed herself next to him, still looking displeased. Both Weiss and Felix settled into their stances. Felix gripped his blade with two hands and held it next to his head and Weiss responded by holding her sword out in front of her in a guarded stance. The tension was building once more, and because of it, no one noticed the door opening, a new figure entering the grounds.

The bell rang once more.

Weiss made the first move, lunging forward with a quick jab. Felix parried the blow with minimal effort, following up instantly with a strike to her chest. Weiss barely had enough time to back up to dodge the attack.

That was problematic, Weiss wasn't skilled in parrying and had to focus on dodging in order to avoid damage since her main weapon was a rapier. Lance users tended to charge in on, but Felix kept on rushing in quickly, up close and personal, pushing in so that she couldn't respond.

Felix raised his sword, going in on top of her with a heavy cleave. Seeing an opportunity, she side stepped hurriedly and straightened her sword for one more lunge.

But the attack never came, Felix simply brought his sword back down into position all while she was preparing to strike. It was a feint.

Weiss only realized her mistake mid-attack. She could already feel her overextension in her haste to win the match, just like how Sylvain broke his stance. Felix flicked his sword, sending her own upwards. Weiss still had her grip on the handle but recovering was impossible to do in time as Felix brought his weapon down on her shoulder.

She cried out in pain, her sword arm throbbing; she was barely able to lift it back up before another attack hit her side.

She could hear gasps in the audience and calls for him to stop, undiscernible who through the pain. But nothing would stop Felix as he swept her legs off of the floor.

She was airborne for a few moments, much higher than Sylvian had been carried in the last duel. It was an almost peaceful feeling, until she slammed down onto her back.

The fall completely knocked the air out of her lungs, Weiss was completely unable to make a sound as she squirmed helplessly on the floor. The Blue Lions surged forward, almost all of them asking if she was okay.

Through her shaky vision, she saw Ingrid getting on Felix, Dedue couching over to check her injuries, and as the rest of the class attempting to get to her.

"-Took it too far!" Ingrid was livid, her finger right in front of Felix's nose, mere inches from his face. "You could've just ended it with the second hit! What was the purpose of thrashing her like that?!"

"Enough, she knew what she was getting into. You aren't her mother, and neither are you mine." Felix retorted, visibly annoyed at the other girl.

"Everyone enough! Weiss is injured. Someone help me get her t-" Dimitri started.

"I don't need to be your mother to stop you from almost killing your classmate!" Dimitri's command went unheard by the rest of the Blue Lions as Ingrid cut him off.

By now, Weiss had sat up, gathering her bearings as the commotion continued. Dedue's offer to take her to the nurse was reduced to background noise as she locked on to Felix's argument.

"You're overexaggerating, she'll live." Felix angrily shot back. "Besides, I expected more of a challenge from her, that's all."

Weiss's face burned with shame. He had every right to say those words, since he was the victor of the match, his choice of diction was anything but praise.

"Woah, hold it Felix! She tried her best right?" Sylvain moved in, "Here, let me help you up." he bent forward, extending his hand towards Weiss.

Shame turned into irritation. Tried her best? Trying was never good enough. Her best had resulted in her groveling to Felix in the end. What did this buffoon know about expectations and of effort? Of upholding family legacy? She loathed Sylvain's pitying expression. As if some oaf like him could ever understand! That same pity enraged her, pity lowered their status to equal levels. Just the thought of some common flirt standing in the same realm as Weiss made her mind go blank.

She slapped the offered hand away. "DON'T TOUCH ME YOU FLITHY GNAT!"

Her voice rang through the training grounds, and there was silence. All eyes in the room turned towards her, many mouths agape at the sudden burst. Even Felix and Ingrid ceased their mounting argument to give surprised looks towards the commotion she'd made.

But in that instant, all Weiss saw was the figure near the back of the training ground, staring straight at her with his typical inscrutable expression. How could no one have noticed him before now?

"Professor…" She whimpered.

She had tried hard to impress him every day since his arrival at the officer's academy. At first Weiss had been shocked that the newest instructor was about the same age the students, but she quickly realized his title had been well deserved.

Each weekday she would arrive thirty minutes early to class, to ask him intelligent and thoughtful questions, and achieved perfect grades for every exam. Although he was a man of few words, his simple praises such as, "Well done." or "Excellent." were enough to motivate her to repeat this same process without fail. Her own father had never offered her such words of encouragement. She made she was perfect whenever he was around, every crease on her uniform smoothed out and every rude word turned into friendly conversation. Without a doubt in her mind, she was the Professors best student.

Until now, that was. With her loss to Felix, her outburst at Sylvain, he had seen all the ugly sides of her.

"I… I…" How could she possibly explain this? She couldn't. There really wasn't any way out of this. Confusion and mortification made her mind a storm of confused thought as she stood up and bolted out of the training ground, anything to stop the staring.

* * *

"Hey hold on!" Sylvain called after her. "Did I do something wrong?" He scratched his head in confusion.

"No Sylvain, you were fine." Byleth stepped out of the shadows, to join his students at the center of the arena. "All of you. Stay here and resume activities, I'll go after her."

"Please wait Professor." Dimitri interjected, "As house leader of the Blue Lions I feel as if it's my responsibility to bring her back."

Byleth looked at his determined student for a few moments. Nodding to grant his permission.

With that, Dimitri put his training spear back on the rack as the rest of the class broke into chatter.

"Dimitri, let me come with you." Sylvain approached him. "I feel like I'm partially at fault here."

The house leader chuckled humorlessly, "Knowing you, that probably will do more harm then help." With that he walked out in search of Weiss.

"Man… That's harsh."

* * *

Weiss was sitting down near a small tree under its shade. Her arms were wrapped around her legs, pulling them closer to herself while she laid her head on her own thighs sniffling.

How could it have come to this? Any sort of respect her professor and classmates had for her must've dissipated as soon as she lost her composure at Sylvain. She knew he didn't mean for his gesture as a sign of disrespect, yet she had lost control over herself.

"May I join you?"

Weiss looked up, immediately wiping any stray tears off of her face before the intruder could spot them.

"What do you want Dimitri?" She hastily fired back at the lord.

"No need to be so defensive, Weiss. I only come to bring you back." The house leader smiled at her.

"I can't go back there. The Professor, he knows now, he saw of all it."

"What could you possibly mean by that?"

"I couldn't let him see that side of me. Now that he has, he probably thinks I'm some of sort of two-faced attention seeker."

"I'm not sure I'm following… Do you mean to say that you believe he will think less of you due to that one event? Perhaps you are overthinking this quite a bit."

"I know I'm not!" Weiss snapped, "Everyone will change their tone once they see me for the real me. I'm rude, callous, and all those things! I know that. But that's just who I am."

"Weiss, where does this way of thinking come from?"Dimitri inquired thoughtfully.

The girl looked up at him again as if assessing the young man. Perhaps he had some sort of knowledge on how to deal with her situation. Maybe… he even understood.

Turning to the side she avoided meeting his gaze. "As you probably know, I come from a noble family."

"Ah yes, I believe so. The Schnee family correct?"

She nodded. "My family is more obsessed with Perfection then most. We were, and continue to be, the wealthiest noble family in Fodlan's history. But, our nobility wasn't earned like through lineage and Crests. It was bought with our mithril mines. Other nobles looked down on us for that. In order to remedy it, each generation of Schnees is tasked with making their offspring the best they can possibly be. Of course, the nobles still take offense to our history, but this strategy worked due to the recognition and honors we have gained. We even acquired the Crest of Chevalier from outside of the family due to our wealth."

"I see. That amount of pressure be suffocating. Do you not have family to share your burdens with? Perhaps that may help to alleviate you of some of this."

Weiss sorrowfully shook her head, "No, I'm not close to the majority of my family except for my older sister, Winter."

"Winter Schnee? I've heard of her, she's a respected veteran among the Faerghus military, but why not share this with her?"

"She's proud of her heritage as well, I don't wish for her to think any less of me." She paused, "Actually I was hoping that you would understand in a way."

"Huh?"

"You are the crown prince of Faerghus, the future king. You must be struggling to make yourself the best you could be as well correct? That should make us alike in some way."

Her tentative query was met with silence. The longer it went on the more uncomfortable it became, Weiss could swear the light of the setting sun just darkened.

"No." He finally spoke, his quiet voice resounded through the air. "We are nothing alike."

"I see..." She could feel her demeanor crack a bit as her shoulders sagged. If the future king of the entire country didn't empathize with her then there was simply no way anyone else would. She was alone again.

"O-oh! Sorry about that! I just lost myself for a second." Dimitri apologized, "I just meant that I'm not suited to console you on such matters as I don't have the same goals as you do."

With that, awkward silence settled in between the two of them, Dimitris admission had made the conversation grind to a halt.

"Then what should I do? I'll admit, I'm at a loss on what my goals should be now." Weiss confessed. She was confused and lost. What could possibly be done?

Dimitri placed his hand on his chin in thought, "Perhaps you do not have to do anything."

Weiss stared at him in surprise.

"Not everything must be resolved at once. Rather, you should take time to gather yourself." The young man mused, "In fact, how about I invite you to go fishing?"

"Uh. Fishing?" Weiss looked mildly disturbed at the thought, gaining back some of the old edge within her, "Isn't that something the peasants are supposed to do?"

"Actually, it's a fairly enjoyable recreational activity for all the nobles as well." He refuted, "To be quite honest, I have hardly partaken of the sport, but Dedue seems to enjoy it greatly, so I'm hoping it will be interesting for us as well."

"Fine, you've convinced me Dimitri." Weiss sighed, before cracking a small smile. "But you're going to be carrying the equipment."

"Very well, but on the trip, I must meet up with the others to inform them of our activity, we wouldn't want to keep everyone worrying, now would we?" He mirrored her with one of his own.

"I'll be sure to meet you at the pond then. Just don't be late!" She shot as he took off to gather the fishing materials.

* * *

Author's note: Hey guys thank you for tuning in to read my first bit of writing in a while! I really hope I integrated Weiss well into the world of Fire Emblem Three Houses. One thing I don't like is when crossover fanfictions just shoehorn them in with portals or of the like. If there are any questions, comments, and/or concerns please review!

Next chapter I definitely plan on doing Ruby in the Leicester Alliance.

Thanks to Isoiso, my Beta.


End file.
